Monday, December 22, 2025 12/22/2025

Development of Methods for a Simplified and Reliable Prostate Cancer MRI Exam

Award Number: R01CA241817
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/01/2020
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2026

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Development of Methods for a Simplified and Reliable Prostate Cancer MRI Exam - Abstract Non-invasive, multi-parametric characterization of prostate cancer (PC), with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods, is an active area of research with great potential for providing improved diagnosis and treatment monitoring. The PI-RADSv2 assessment system that was established by an international team of experts recognizes the value of quantitative images in PC diagnosis, but relies largely on qualitative evaluation of weighted images. Although this grading approach achieves reasonably good separation be- tween normal and abnormal prostate tissue, it does not achieve adequate separation between indolent and aggressive disease, with the risk that more unnecessary and costly surgery is performed with poten- tially dire consequences on patient quality of life. High-value protocols, without need for an invasive and costly endo-rectal radio-frequency coil are being investigated. This comes at the cost of extended scan time and reduced image quality in terms of spatial resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and signal bias, which negatively impacts sensitivity and speciﬁcity of multi-parametric MRI. With the pronounced increase of multi-parametric MRI exams, there is also the desire to integrate the support by the most recent revolution in diagnostic imaging, i.e., machine learning. It becomes increasingly clear, that in order to avoid having to train neural networks for each speciﬁc system and protocol, reproducible and thus preferably quantitative imaging protocols are essential. To overcome these limitations, we propose both pulse sequence develop- ment, investigation of ADC validity and reproducibility and novel post-processing strategies. The overall objective is to demonstrate the added value of lesion characterization with quantitative values and at the same time understand and minimize the inﬂuence of protocol choices and scan hardware, hence improve overall reproducibility. Speciﬁc Aim 1 will focus on the development of a low distortion MR imaging sequence for rapid concurrent quantiﬁcation of T2 and diﬀusion signal decay. Speciﬁc Aim 2 will examine ADC variations that result from changes in diﬀusion time over a range that is typical with present day clinical MR systems. Speciﬁc Aim 3 introduces advanced handling of low noise diﬀusion data, which will be indispensable for achieving high accuracy and precision with non-invasive and economic external coils. Speciﬁc Aim 4 introduces a novel ADC computation approach that fully captures the complex diﬀusion signal decays in tissues and at the same time is largely protocol and system independent. Moreover, re- sulting images and quantitative maps processed according this approach, exhibit considerably lower noise, which can be traded for higher spatial resolution or shorter scan duration. In combination, the consis- tently quantitative nature of the data and its ubiquitous validity and comparability will greatly facilitate the establishment of recommendations for disease-related thresholds. Ultimately this may permit much more reliable diﬀerentiation of aggressive from indolent disease.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2025	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	5	12/16/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $449,777 )
2025	2025	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	5	11/19/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$404,800
2025	2025	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	5	5/29/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$44,977
														Subtotal = $449,777

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $439,314 )
2024	2024	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	4	1/10/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$416,193
2024	2024	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	4	4/17/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$23,121
														Subtotal = $439,314

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2023	2022	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	3	8/16/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $457,554 )
2022	2022	BRIGHAM & WOMENS HOSPITAL INC	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	3	8/3/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$457,554
														Subtotal = $457,554

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $452,748 )
2021	2021	BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL, INC., THE	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	2	5/27/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$452,748
														Subtotal = $452,748

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $454,234 )
2020	2020	BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL, INC., THE	75 FRANCIS ST	BOSTON	MA	02115	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	1	2/27/2020	NEW	$454,234
														Subtotal = $454,234

Grand Total All Awards = $2,253,627

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Development of Methods for a Simplified and Reliable Prostate Cancer MRI Exam

Award Number: R01CA241817

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/01/2020

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2026

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